Joint venture buys four industrial sites

Real estate

Investment groups from Chicago and Baltimore have purchased a local, four-property industrial portfolio for $24 million, one of the region's largest deals in that sector since the Great Recession.

A team from NAI Realvest represented the seller, Cornerstone Core Properties REIT, in its sale of 525,000 square feet of space in Orange and Seminole counties.

Blue Vista Capital Partners of Chicago and Rio Hondo Capital Partners of Baltimore, in a joint venture, purchased the portfolio, which includes Monroe CommerCenter North and South, both in Sanford, and Hanging Moss CommerCenter and Goldenrod CommerCenter, both in Orlando.

The NAI team included Chairman George Livingston, Principal Christie Alexander, Broker Associate Drew Saphos, Paul Vera, and Principal Michael Heidrich. Vera and Heidrich will continue to lease the portfolio for the new owners.

Alexander said the group of properties was marketed for three weeks before the call for offers drew about a dozen investment groups from across the country.

The market, Heidrich said, is being driven by both stronger tenant demand and also by investors' view of growth potential with properties, such as these, selling for less than replacement value.

Cuhaci & Peterson Architects, Engineers, Planners of Orlando won the contract to design a new Fresh Market store in Winter Springs at Red Willow Plaza. Lonnie Peterson, chairman at Cuhaci & Peterson, said the 21,000-square-foot store is slated to open in early 2014. The firm also completed design work on a 4,000-square-foot East Coast Wings & Grill on Alafaya Trail near Curry Ford Road in east Orange County.

Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., also known as VHB consultants, was selected by the city of Ocala's Revitalization Strategies Department to assist in the preparation of Community Redevelopment Area plans for the Marion County seat's main entry corridors.

Sales

Cushman & Wakefield of Florida's Orlando-based Multifamily Advisory Services team of Senior Director Jay Ballard, Associate Director Ken Delvillar and Associate Lindsey Pfaender closed a bulk condominium sale in Mirasol at Celebration, in Osceola County. The firm represented the seller, a financial institution, in the $33.64 million sale of 163 units in Mirasol, a resort-style property built in 2002 with a total of 210 units, which were 98 percent occupied at the time of the 163 units' sale. The buyer was Levin Realty Advisors Inc. …

NAI Realvest negotiated the $750,000 sale of the entire first floor at 3739 Byron Anthony Place, a professional-office building in Savannah Park, which is off International Parkway and State Road 46 in Sanford. Paul P. Partyka, principal and managing partner at NAI Realvest, represented the seller, Pinnacle Bank of Orange City. The 9,883-square-foot Seminole County office condominium was purchased by Long Island International LLC of Longwood, a medical investment group that will open an ambulatory care facility. Sanjay Kumar of Florida Residential Commercial & Investment represented the buyers.